Week of the young child: Music enhances learning, brain development

Monday

Apr 7, 2014 at 5:00 PM

The first three years of a child’s life are a special time during which parents and babies can make beautiful music together and can use this music to build powerful connections with each other. The mutual joy experienced by parents and children as they share music can strengthen their bonds and enhance the baby’s brain development.

Music is also a unique way to for children to connect to their roots. An African-American spiritual, a Swedish or Irish lullaby, a Mexican folk song ... all introduce your baby to the family’s heritage in a way that goes beyond words and pictures. Playing songs and using musical styles from children’s home culture also creates continuity between the home and the caregiving setting.

Do you remember singing songs with your family, or at school growing up? Many of us can remember a song just from hearing the beginning notes or words; often we hum these melodies without even realizing we are doing it. Music educators have known for years that quality music experiences enhance learning and brain development in every stage of our lives.

What powerful links to learning might we use within the many aspects of music? In her article, Learning Through Music: The Support of Brain Research (2000), Elizabeth Carlton points out the areas music enhances in the first three years of a child’s life. Like all the best learning experiences in early childhood, music activities simultaneously promote development in multiple areas.

When thinking about introducing a musical experience into your daily routine, one thing to remember would be, “How and what do I want my child to learn from this experience?” Rebecca Parlakian shares in her article, Beyond Twinkle, Twinkle, (2010), thoughtfully planned music experiences can support and nurture each of the domains of development — social-emotional, physical (motor), thinking (cognitive), and language and literacy. These areas are intertwined and the learning which takes place across domains can happen while singing or playing just one song.

Music and music experiences enhance social-emotional skills through helping a child understand emotions, cooperate and build relationships, build self-esteem, and build self-confidence. The physical (motor) skills music can enhance are: fine motor development, balance, body awareness, and using both sides of their bodies together.

Thinking (cognitive) skills benefit by teaching counting, patterns and sequencing, a steady beat, memory development, observation of differences, and pretend play and symbolic thinking. One of the most important areas music and music experiences affects are language and literacy skills. Music reinforces the spoken language, dual-language learning, receptive language, and phonemic awareness, which is how well a child can hear, recognize, and use different sounds. During a musical activity, the body, voice and brain are united for optimal processing and enjoyment of the subject enhances this.

Grace C. Nash, a pioneer in music education, has said music and movement are the first languages of childhood. You may be asking yourself as a parent or caregiver, “what I can do to help or enhance my child’s learning with music?” The answer would be to also remember that music is fun!

Moving and singing are joyful and memorable experiences you can share every day, several times a day with your child. Sing the songs you heard as a child, sing the songs sung at daycare and share those experiences with your child. Remember that music can permeate all areas of our lives and enhance our brains, our enjoyment and our relationships.